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More Stress Associated with Greater Heart Risk
11/19/07
Living Well
Men and women—especially women—who report multiple sources of stress have a significantly greater risk of heart disease, according to a new study.
Reviewing 22 years of medical records for nearly 7,000 patients revealed that people who worried about education, income, employment, single parenting, marital status, or had depressive and anxious symptoms, were more likely to develop heart disease. One of those stress indicators increased heart risk by 28 percent. Two or three stressors raised risk by 56 percent. And reporting four or more such stress factors meant people were more than two-and-a-half times more likely to suffer from heart disease.
Stress, as defined by the American Heart Association, “describes the condition caused by a person’s reaction to physical, chemical, emotional, or environmental factors.” It can mean both physical effort and emotional tension. Heart health experts are still trying to define the relationship between stress and cardiovascular risk.
This study, conducted by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Harvard School of Public Health aimed to do just that. Previous research has focused on single stress indicators, but never on stress factors that co-occur, or occur at the same time. Experts are still debating whether stress is an independent risk factor of heart disease. Stress may have a greater affect on other risk factors and behaviors like blood pressure, smoking, physical inactivity, and obesity.
In this recent study published in the October 2007 issue of Psychosomatic Medicine, researchers found an association between stress, obesity, and heart disease. That association was strongest among women. Women with more co-occurring stress indicators (the author referred to them as “clustered risk factors”) were more likely to be obese whereas men under psychological pressure were not as likely to struggle with weight. Furthermore, more women than men reported high numbers of concurrent stress factors.
For more information, read “Multiple stressors compound heart disease.”
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